Chicago Marathon registration suspended

The 2012 Chicago Marathon celebrates its 35th anniversary on Columbus Day weekend with competitors starting and finishing in Chicago's Grant Park. The race, with 45,000 participants, includes world-class elite runners and a wheelchair field.

Philip Hersh, Tribune reporter

Web site problems caused Bank of America Chicago Marathon officials to suspend online registration for the Oct. 13 race after four hours of problems Tuesday.

It will not resume for at least two more days. Marathon director Carey Pinkowski said he expected to issue an update Thursday at 5 p.m.

Some 15,000 of the approximately 35,000 available entries remain.

"We are not reopening registration until we are confident all technical issues have been resolved," marathon spokesperson Lauren Fimbres Wood said in an email.

Registration began at noon. For the next 90 minutes, however, almost everyone trying to register was greeted with this:

This site is currently unavailable.

Please check back later.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Continuing problems forced suspension of registration about 4 p.m. Many people who got several steps into the process were not certain the registration had gone through.

Via Twitter (@chimarathon), marathon officials said people who were inadvertently charged twice will get a refund. They should email office@chicagomarathon.com.